END OF THE WORLD: Officials flap as 5000 birds fall from sky

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Wildlife authorities investigating why thousands of birds fell from the sky over a town in remote southwestern Australia have ruled out infectious diseases but are no closer to figuring out what killed them, a state official said Friday.

Around 5,000 birds have been found dead in Esperance, Western Australia, since mid-December, according to Nigel Higgs, spokesman for the state's Department of Environment and Conservation.

The birds were mostly nectar- and insect-eating species, although some seagulls also have been found, Higgs said in a telephone interview from his office in the Western Australia capital, Perth.

Pathologists at the Western Australia Department of Agriculture examined several of the carcasses, and have ruled out the virulent H5N1 bird flu virus and other infectious diseases.

"It may be an environmental toxin. It may be an agricultural or industrial toxin. We just can't be specific," Higgs said.

Further tests were being done on the dead birds, and Higgs said that it would be at least another week before pathologists have any more information on the mysterious deaths. Meanwhile, the reports of dead birds were waning, he said.

Michelle Crisp was one of the first residents of Esperance to report the dead birds.

She told The Australian newspaper earlier this week that she normally had hundreds of birds on her property, but she and a neighbor had counted 80 dead birds in one day.

"It went to the point where we had nothing, not a bird," she was quoted as saying. "It was like a moonscape, just horrible."

Earlier this week, authorities discovered 63 dead birds in a section of downtown Austin, Texas, and temporarily shut down the area. Officials are awaiting lab results to determine the cause of the deaths.